Experimentieren gehört wesentlich zu den Naturwissenschaften. Experimente dienen verschiedenen Zielen. Sie unterscheiden sich deutlich von blossen Beobachtungen, bei denen natürlich auftretende Prozesse registriert und gemessen werden. In Experimenten werden spezifische notwendige/ hinreichende Bedingungen festgehalten, um die Experimentieranordnung von der Umgebung zu isolieren und um darüber hinaus den Verlauf der Ereignisse in dieser oder jener Weise zu beeinflussen. Der Fokus im vorliegenden Artikel liegt auf der Rolle des tätigen Denkens im Prozess des Experimentierens. Üblicherweise wird das tätige Denken als gegeben hingenommen und die Analyse des Experimentierens konzentriert sich auf Fragen der Kausalität, der verwendeten Instrumente und Materialien usw. Es wird vorgeschlagen, den Fokus der Analyse des Experimentierens zu erweitern, insbesondere durch den Einbezug der performativen Qualität des tätigen Denkens, indem zusätzlich Gedankenexperimente, dann Experimente des reinen Denkens einbezogen werden, und zuletzt dasjenige, was hier reine Gedankenexperimente genannt wird. Denken ist eine Fähigkeit, die allen Menschen zur Verfügung steht, und folglich sind Menschen in der Lage, dies bei sich selbst systematisch zu untersuchen. Es wird dargestellt, welche Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen solche Experimente aus der Erste- Person-Perspektive bieten und was sie zur Untersuchung wissenschaftlichen Experimentierens beitragen können.
Experimentation is at the core of the natural sciences. Experiments are done for different reasons. They differ substantially from observations, where naturally occurring processes are taken note of or measured. Experiments instantiate the specific conditions that are necessary for isolating an experimental setting from its environment and manipulating the course of events in some way. This paper focuses on the role of human thinking as a mental action in the process of experimentation. In many cases, human action, in particular mental action, is taken for granted during experimentation, and the analysis tends to focus on questions of causality, the type of instruments and materials used, etc. This paper proposes to broaden the focus in the analysis of scientific experimentation, by taking mental actions into consideration: first by considering thought experiments, then pure thought experiments, and eventually what we might call (pure) experiments in thinking. Thinking is something that all human beings are capable of and, therefore, one can explore it systematically oneself. This paper outlines what the opportunities for such first-person experimentation are and how they can contribute to the enquiry of scientific experimentation.
Experimentation is at the core of the natural sciences. Experiments are done for different reasons. They differ substantially from observations, where naturally occurring processes are taken note of or measured. Experiments instantiate the specific conditions that are necessary for isolating an experimental setting from its environment and manipulating the course of events in some way. This paper focuses on the role of human thinking as a mental action in the process of experimentation. In many cases, human action, in particular mental action, is taken for granted during experimentation, and the analysis tends to focus on questions of causality, the type of instruments and materials used, etc. This paper proposes to broaden the focus in the analysis of scientific experimentation, by taking mental actions into consideration: first by considering thought experiments, then pure thought experiments, and eventually what we might call (pure) experiments in thinking. Thinking is something that all human beings are capable of and, therefore, one can explore it systematically oneself. This paper outlines what the opportunities for such first-person experimentation are and how they can contribute to the enquiry of scientific experimentation.